Chris Thurston has stepped down as Watford Ladies’ assistant manager after securing a new job with the Hornets’ Academy, but he will continue to help the Golden Girls in a different role.

Thurston has been manager John Salomon’s number two for the past three seasons, having originally joined Watford Ladies four years ago as a voluntary sport scientist at the Centre of Excellence. He will now help the club out with fitness testing and monitoring after being appointed as the new education and welfare officer for Watford FC’s Academy, a post he will take up early in 2015.

“I’m excited about my new role and look forward to starting, but I am extremely sad about not having the same involvement with the ladies team,” Thurston told Watford Ladies’ website on Friday when his decision was announced. “Working here has been a huge part of my life for the last four years and I am very proud of us all.

“We’ve come a long way and I have every faith in the girls that their hard work will help the team and the club to be even stronger in the future.

“In a funny way it’s like going back to what I did when I started. John has asked me to lead fitness testing and of course I will always do whatever I can to help him and the club.”

Salomon said: “I hired Chris initially as a voluntary sport scientist to work in our girls’ Centre of Excellence and he steps down from his role as first team assistant manager having helped this club, on and off the pitch, achieve so much over the past four years.

“Chris and I have become close friends over the years and as a colleague, for anyone who has read Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography, he’s very much played the role of Carlos Queiroz.”